Tag: admissions

A Look at Admissions Rates by Gender

The newest round of data on American colleges and universities from the Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) was released last week. While the data—on admissions, financial aid, student charges, and graduation rates—were only a few days later than in past years in spite of the longest government shutdown on record this fall and greatly diminished capacity at ED, the two data releases in recent months have had some uncharacteristic issues. The release earlier this fall was marred with coding issues, and the most recent release had data files not initially posted and issues that make the new cost of attendance survey unusable in my view for vocational institutions.

The Trump administration is keenly interested in the admissions survey, and has proposed a massive expansion that would retroactively collect large amounts of data by race/gender and test scores going back to 2019-20—and that the data collection would happen in the spring of 2026. (James Murphy has covered the government regulation burden angle incredibly well. Check out his work.) This goes well beyond a previously scheduled set of changes for fall 2025 data collection that will collect admissions data by race and gender, which would not be done retroactively.

I took a quick look at fall 2024 admissions data to get a sense of a key policy debate—admissions rates by gender—and to show some of the concerns with drawing policy conclusions from institution-level IPEDS data. A full spreadsheet can be downloaded here.

In aggregate, there is little evidence that men or women are admitted to selective colleges at different rates. For the 298 institutions with acceptance rates below 50%, women were admitted to the median institution at a rate 1.3 percentage points higher than men. This fell to 0.08 percentage points for the 100 institutions accepting fewer than 25% of students and men were favored by 0.04 percentage points for the 31 institutions accepting fewer than 10%.

But there are some interesting items at the institution level. Circle in the Square Theatre School (which I have never heard of, but it seems like a fascinating piece of geometry) admitted 5.01% of women and 1.26% of men. Caltech, MIT, and UCLA admitted higher shares of women, while Chicago, Brown, and Swarthmore admitted higher shares of men. Meanwhile, my university admitted men and women at nearly identical 46% rates…but women were 60% of applicants. Take a spin through to see what you think.

Just cutting the data by gender brings down sample sizes quite a bit, so race/gender admissions rates are going to be noisy at many institutions. For example, the Julliard School accepted men at a higher rate than women (10.6% compared to 7.9%), but only received a total of 2,020 applications. If a racial group represents only a small percentage of applicants (White students are the largest share of current students at just 29%), then a few applications could move percentages quite a bit. Adding test scores or high school GPA to the mix (like the Trump administration proposes) will make data far too volatile for high-stakes accountability, but that appears to be the future as federal investigations are likely to be linked to changes in a small number of student applications or admissions.

On a final note, I wish you a wonderful end to 2025. Check out my interview with the fabulous Alex Usher of Higher Education Strategy Associates for my top ten events in American higher education this year. And for those working on college campuses, take the time to learn how both faculty and staff schedules work once classes end. Many faculty are off contract, while staff may be trying to take time off before vacation days expire.

See you in 2026!

How Acela Corridor Educational Norms Look to an Outsider

Education policy discussions in the United States tend to be dominated by people living in the Acela Corridor—the densely-populated, highly-educated, and high-income portion of the United States that is served by Amtrak’s fast train from Boston to Washington, DC. Since moving from the Midwest to New Jersey four years ago to start on the tenure track at Seton Hall, I have probably logged 50 trips to Washington via Amtrak’s slower (and less-expensive) Northeast Regional train. (It sure beats driving, and Amtrak’s quiet car is a delight!)

Many of the suburban communities in northern New Jersey have median household incomes of well over $100,000 per year, which is roughly the top 20% of American families. The top 20% is notable because that is the cutoff that the Brookings Institution’s Richard Reeves uses in his new book, Dream Hoarders, to highlight how upper-income individuals have taken steps to make sure their children have every opportunity possible—typically at the expense of other families. The sheer concentration of high-income families within much of the Acela Corridor has created a powerful set of social norms regarding education that can leave outsiders flabbergasted.

Yet in spite of having two parents with bachelor’s degrees, a PhD in education, and being one half of a two-income professional household, I find myself confused by a number of practices that are at least somewhat common in the Acela Corridor but not in other parts of the country. This was highlighted by a piece in Sunday’s New York Times on affirmative action. The reporter spoke with two students at private boarding schools in New Jersey, of which there are apparently a fair number. My first reaction, as a small-town Midwesterner, was a little different than what many of my peers would think.

Here are some other things that have surprised me in my interactions with higher-income families in the Acela Corridor:

  • K-12 school choice debates. Unlike some people in the education world, I don’t have any general philosophical objections to charter schools. But in order for school choice to work (barring online options), there needs to be a certain population density. This is fine in urban and suburban areas, but not so great in rural areas where one high school may draw from an entire county. A number of Republican senators from rural states have raised concerns about school choice as a solution for this reason.
  • SAT/ACT test preparation. I attended a small-town public high school with about 200 students in my graduating class. The focus there was to get students to take the ACT (the dominant test in America as a whole, with the coasts being the exception), while also encouraging students to take the PLAN and PSAT examinations. But I never saw a sign advertising ACT prep services, nor was I even aware that was I thing people do. (I took the practice ACT that came with the exam the night before the test—that was it.) In the Northeast, there seem to be more signs on the side of the road advertising test prep than any other product or service.
  • The college admissions process. Going to a four-year college is the expectation for higher-income families in the Acela Corridor, and families treat the college choice process as being incredibly important. Using private college counselors to help manage the process, which often includes applying to ten or more colleges, is not uncommon. A high percentage of students also leave the state for college, which is quite expensive. (In New Jersey, about 37% of high school graduates head to other states to attend college.) Meanwhile, in much of the country, the goal is to get students to attend college at all rather than to get students to attend a slightly more prestigious institution. I can think of just one of my high school classmates who went out of state, and a large percentage of the class did not attend college immediately after high school.
  • Private tutoring while in college. I supplemented my income in graduate school by tutoring students in economics, typically charging between $25 and $40 per hour to meet with one or two students to help them prepare for exams. (I paid for an engagement ring using tutoring income!) I was never aware of anyone paying for private tutoring when I was an undergraduate at Truman State University, but this was a common practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Nearly all of these students came from the suburbs of New York City or Washington, DC and were used to receiving private tutoring throughout their education. I got very few tutoring requests from in-state students, but they were typically paying for their own college (and thus got a substantial discount from my normal rates).

I worry about education policy discussions being dominated by the Acela Corridor regulars because their experiences are so different than what how most Americans experience both K-12 and higher education. If education committee staffers, academic researchers, and think tankers all share similar backgrounds, the resulting policy decisions may not reflect the needs of rural and urban lower-income individuals. It is important to seek out people from other walks of life to make sure policies are best for all Americans.

Do Presidential Debates Increase Student Applications?

Tonight is the first presidential debate of the 2016 general election season, and this clash between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump could top 100 million viewers. (I won’t be one of them, as I’m teaching tonight.) The host site, Hofstra University, is actually the second choice—as Wright State University pulled out over the high price tag this summer. Hofstra is paying about $5 million to host the debate, with the costs generally covered through three donors.

Hosting a presidential debate is undoubtedly a great public relations opportunity for a university, similar to making a big run in the NCAA basketball tournament or making a big football bowl game. Some research has shown that big-time athletics success is associated with increased student applications in the following year, so the media circus following a presidential debate (Hofstra is trending on Twitter as I write this post) could have similar results.

Hofstra also hosted a presidential debate in 2012, so I looked at what happened to the number of applications they received before and after the debate compared to their defined group of peer institutions. The data are below:

Name 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Pct increase, 2012-13 to 2013-14
Adelphi University 8278 9184 8654 -5.8%
American University 18706 17039 17545 3.0%
Boston University 38275 41802 44006 5.3%
Drexel University 48450 40586 43945 8.3%
Fordham University 31792 34070 36189 6.2%
George Washington University 21433 21591 21756 0.8%
Hofstra University 18909 21376 22733 6.3%
Ithaca College 13436 13813 15658 13.4%
LIU Post 7369 7209 6001 -16.8%
Marist College 11399 11466 10351 -9.7%
New York University 41243 42807 45779 6.9%
Northeastern University 43255 44208 47364 7.1%
Pace University-New York 10623 11778 12885 9.4%
Quinnipiac University 18651 18825 20699 10.0%
Seton Hall University 6436 10180 10735 5.5%
St John’s University-New York 54871 52972 51634 -2.5%
Syracuse University 25884 25790 28269 9.6%

 

Hofstra did see a 6.3% increase in applications between 2012-13 and 2013-14, compared to a 4.6% increase across its peer institutions. But other peers, such as Ithaca, Quinnipiac, Syracuse, and Pace saw even larger increases. So it appears that the debate brought plenty of pride to Hofstra, but there was not an unusual jump in applications after the debate aired.

Will Colleges Send Out Financial Aid Packages Earlier Next Year?

I’m looking forward to college students being able to submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) three months earlier next year. Instead of being able to submit starting January 1 for the 2017-18 academic year, students will be able to submit beginning October 1—giving students an additional three months to complete the form thanks to using ‘prior prior year’ (PPY) income and asset data. This means that students can get an estimate of their eligibility for federal grants and loans as soon as late fall, which has the potential to help inform the college choice process.

But there is no guarantee that students will get their final financial aid package from the college any earlier as a result of prior prior year. Recognizing this, Undersecretary of Education Ted Mitchell recently sent a letter to college presidents asking colleges to send out their aid packages earlier in order for students to fully benefit from PPY. Will colleges follow suit? I expect that some will, but the colleges with the greatest ability to offer institutional grant aid probably won’t. Below, I explain why.

The types of colleges that can easily respond to PPY by getting aid packages out earlier are those institutions with rolling admissions deadlines. (Essentially, it’s first-come, first-served among students who meet whatever admissions criteria are present—less-selective four-year and virtually all two-year colleges operate in this manner.) Some of these colleges already offer their own grant aid upon admission, but these colleges tend to have less grant aid to offer on account of relatively low sticker prices and fewer institutional resources. Additionally, these colleges often take applications well into the spring and summer—after students can already file the FAFSA under current rules.

It is less likely that the relatively small number of highly-selective colleges that get a disproportionate amount of media coverage will respond to PPY by getting financial aid offers out any earlier. For example, the Ivy League institutions didn’t even release their admissions notifications for students applying through the regular route until the last day of March, which gives students plenty of time to complete the FAFSA under current rules. Moving up the notification date to January is definitely feasible under PPY, but it requires students to apply earlier—and thus take tests like the ACT or SAT earlier. All students are supposed to commit to one college by May 1, giving students one month under current rules to compare aid packages and make a decision. Colleges may oppose extending this decision period as students have more time to compare offers and potentially request more money from colleges.

I suspect the Department of Education sent their letter to colleges in an effort to get the admissions notification dates at selective colleges moved up, but this goes against the incentives in place at some colleges to reduce the comparison shopping period. Prior prior year still allows students to get their federal aid eligibility earlier, which is a good thing. But for quite a few students, they won’t get their complete financial aid package any earlier.

Should Students Get Admission Preferences for Community Service?

A January report called “Making Caring Common” sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School of Education and endorsed by dozens of researchers and enrollment management professionals made headlines for calling on students seeking to attend elite colleges to focus less on college preparatory tests and more on community service while in high school. (The report also called on expanding the definition of what a “good” college is, but that’s a topic for another day.)

Last weekend’s New York Times included an interesting proposal from attorney Steve Cohen in response to this report. He wrote the following:

“The best way for colleges to tell kids they truly value a concern about others and a real commitment to community service is to announce that they’ll give an admissions bump of one standard deviation to anyone who spends two years after high school doing full-time AmeriCorps-type community or military service.”

Essentially, Cohen is calling for an expansion of the ‘gap year’ between high school and college. While this sort of plan has some benefits (such as giving students a chance to mature before beginning their studies and providing potential opportunities to learn more about the world), I am skeptical that a two-year community service program would actually benefit students from lower-income families:

(1) Voluntary gap years are basically just for students from wealthy families. Although research from Sara Goldrick-Rab and Seong Wan Han shows that gap years are far more common for financially-needy students, these gap years are typically so students can transition to adulthood and pay for their education. Community service jobs are unlikely to pay the bills; AmeriCorps, for example, pays their full-time employees about $1,070 per month—far less than a full-time job flipping burgers or making biscuits. Students from wealthier families can rely on their parents to subsidize them while waiting to get into an elite college, while lower-income families may expect their college-age students to help pay the bills.

(2) Delaying enrollment for two years can hurt students when they get to college. A majority of first-time students who enroll in community college already take at least one remedial course while they are in college (remediation data at four-year colleges are tricky because some states and colleges technically do not offer remedial courses). Even among students who took college preparatory coursework, delaying enrollment by two years provides ample opportunity for many of the key math and writing skills to become rusty. This can result either in higher rates of remediation (and delaying the path to a degree) or struggling in the first year of courses (which can result in the loss of financial aid). For example, research by Robert Bozick and Stefanie DeLuca finds that delayed enrollees are less likely to earn a college degree than on-time enrollees, even after controlling for academic preparation and family income.

For these reasons, I highly doubt that giving admissions preferences to students who delay college to do community service will help non-wealthy students. However, I am intrigued by the preference for students with military experience, particularly as most elite colleges enroll few veterans. Research by Amy Lutz shows that young adults from the wealthiest family income quartile are less likely to serve in the military than those from lower-income or middle-income families. Military service also offers a better compensation package than community service, although at greater risk to the individual. These people who are willing to put their lives on the line certainly deserve special consideration in admissions, while young adults who can afford to do community service for two years likely do not.

Which Colleges Enroll First-Generation Students?

The higher education world is abuzz over the Obama Administration’s Saturday morning release of a new College Scorecard tool (and underlying trove of data). In my initial reaction piece, I discussed some of the new elements that are available for the first time. Earnings of former students are getting the most attention (and have been frequently misinterpreted as being the earnings of graduates only), but today I am focusing on a new data element that should be of interest to students, researchers, and policymakers alike.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid has included a question about the highest education level of the student’s parent(s), but this information was never included in publicly available data. (And, yes, the FAFSA application period will be moved up three months starting in 2016—and my research on the topic may have played a small role in it!) In my blog post on Saturday, I showed the distribution of the percentage of first-generation students (as defined as not having a parent with at least some college) among students receiving federal financial aid dollars. Here it is again:

firstgen

I dug deeper into the data to highlight the ten four-year public and private nonprofit colleges with the lowest and highest percentages of first-generation students (among those receiving federal aid) in 2013. The results are below:

Four-year private nonprofit colleges with the fewest first-generation students, 2013.
Name Pct First Gen
California Institute of Technology 5.9
Wheaton College (IL) 8.3
Oberlin College (OH) 8.5
Elon University (NC) 8.6
Dickinson College (PA) 9.0
Macalester College (MN) 9.1
University of Notre Dame (IN) 9.7
Carnegie Mellon University (PA) 9.8
Hobart William Smith Colleges (NY) 9.8
Rhode Island School of Design 10.6
Source: College Scorecard/NSLDS.
Note: Only includes students receiving Title IV aid, excludes specialty colleges.
Four-year public colleges with the fewest first-generation students, 2013.
Name Pct First Gen
College of William and Mary (VA) 13.2
University of Vermont 14.1
Georgia Institute of Technology 16.5
University of North Carolina School of the Arts 17.4
University of Virginia 17.6
New College of Florida 18.0
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 18.0
SUNY College at Geneseo 18.4
Clemson University 18.5
University of Wisconsin-Madison 19.1
Source: College Scorecard/NSLDS.
Note: Only includes students receiving Title IV aid, excludes specialty colleges.

Just 5.9% of students receiving federal financial aid at the California Institute of Technology were defined as first-generation in 2013, and eight other private nonprofit colleges were under 10% (including Oberlin, Notre Dame, and Carnegie Mellon). The lowest public college was the College of William and Mary, where just 13% of students were first-generation. Several flagships check in on the list, including Vermont, Virginia, Michigan, and Wisconsin (where I got my PhD).

The list of colleges with the highest percentage of first-generation students is quite different:

Four-year private nonprofit colleges with the most first-generation students, 2013.
Name Pct First Gen
Colorado Heights University 75.6
Beulah Heights University (GA) 66.0
Heritage University (WA) 64.3
Grace Mission University (CA) 64.1
Hodges University (FL) 63.3
Humphreys College (CA) 60.5
Selma University (AL) 59.8
Mid-Continent University (KY) 59.7
Sojourner-Douglass College (MD) 59.2
University of Rio Grande (OH) 58.5
Source: College Scorecard/NSLDS.
Note: Only includes students receiving Title IV aid, excludes specialty colleges.
Four-year public colleges with the most first-generation students, 2013.
Name Pct First Gen
Cal State University-Los Angeles 64.0
Cal State University-Dominguez Hills 60.2
Cal State University-Stanislaus 60.2
Cal State University-San Bernardino 59.4
Cal State University-Bakersfield 58.2
University of Texas-Pan American* 56.9
University of Arkansas at Monticello 56.1
University of Texas at Brownsville* 55.2
Cal State University-Fresno 53.4
Cal State University-Northridge 53.1
Source: College Scorecard/NSLDS.
Note: Only includes students receiving Title IV aid, excludes specialty colleges.
* These two colleges are now UT-Rio Grande Valley as of Sept. 1.

Six private nonprofit and three public four-year colleges had at least three-fifths of their federal aid recipients classified as first-generation students, ten times the rate of Caltech. The top-ten lists for both public and private colleges include many minority-serving institutions, as well as a good chunk of the Cal State University System. These engines of social mobility deserve credit, as do some flagship institutions that do far better than average in enrolling first-generation students. UC-Berkeley, where 37% of aided students are first-generation, also deserves special commendation.

There are a lot of great data elements present in the College Scorecard data that go beyond earnings. I hope that they get attention from researchers and are disseminated to the public.

Why SAT Scores Going Down May Be Just Fine

The average score for students taking the venerable SAT exam in 2014-2015 was 1490, seven points below last year’s scores and the lowest score since the writing section was added in 2005. Not surprisingly, this drop is generating a lot of media coverage—much of it focused on how high schools are failing America’s children. But while high schools may very well be a concern (and those of us in colleges shouldn’t get off without criticism, either), I contend that the decline in SAT scores may be just fine.

The simple reason for my lack of concern is that the decline may very well be due to more students taking the exams in response to new state laws and district rules in several states requiring or encouraging testing. For example, Idaho required beginning in 2012 that students had to take the ACT or SAT to graduate—and that the state would cover SAT costs for students. In 2011-2012, 27% of Idaho students took the SAT and got an average score of 1613, while practically all Idaho students in 2014-2015 took the SAT and got an average score of 1372. (The District of Columbia, Delaware, and Maine—the other three jurisdictions where basically everyone takes the SAT—had similarly low scores.) Either Idaho high schools imploded over a three-year window, or the types of students who weren’t previously taking the test didn’t have the same level of ability on standardized tests as the 27% of students who were likely considering selective four-year colleges.

The chart below shows the relationship between the percentage of students taking the SAT and scores (data available via the Washington Post). The R-squared is 0.82, suggesting that 82% of the variation in state-level test scores can be explained by the percentage of students tested in each state.

sat_2015

What I would like to see is some comparisons across similar types of students over time. Among students who signal a clear intent to go to a four-year college, are SAT scores declining? Or is the entire decline driven by different students taking the test? And are students considering college for the first time because they took the SAT and did reasonably well? There is value to everyone taking a standardized test across states (given the differences in state high school exams), but it’s inappropriate to look at trends over time with such large differences in the types of students taking the test.

It’s National College Decision Day. So What?

May 1 is known as National College Decision Day, as it is often the deadline for students to make deposits to attend the college of their choice. Both local and national media love to highlight students who attend selective institutions, making it seem like May 1 applies to many students who are holding offers from multiple institutions. It’s also spawned a Twitter hashtag of #DecisionDay, which is worth a look. But in reality, the May 1 deadline doesn’t apply to that many students. Below are some reasons why.

(1) In the community college and less-selective four-year sectors, many students apply for admission well after May 1. For example, the University of Missouri-St. Louis, which admitted about two-thirds of applicants for the fall 2012 semester, does not have a firm cutoff date for admission. For-profit institutions often have rolling admissions, meaning that the May 1 deadline applies to only more selective public and nonprofit colleges.

(2) The decision day only really matters to students who applied and are admitted to multiple colleges. Given that most students stay close to home to attend college (as illustrated in these great charts by data wizard Jon Boeckenstedt) and don’t apply to more than three or four colleges, students may not even wait until the last minute to make their decision. I only applied to two colleges and made my decision in October (thank you, rolling admissions!), so I submitted my deposit well before the May 1 deadline.

(3) Just because a student submits a deposit doesn’t necessarily mean he or she will actually enroll in the fall. Some students submit deposits to multiple institutions, as the cost is often relatively small (as examples, Montclair State requires a $525 deposit and Seton Hall requires $625). Submitting multiple deposits is highly unethical according to admissions professionals, as they want certainty in the sizes of their incoming classes. But anecdotal conversations with enrollment management professionals reveal a rising rate of (suspected) multiple deposits, even though colleges may be able to rescind admissions offers under these circumstances.

At less-selective institutions with May 1 deposit deadlines, “summer melt,” in which students intend to go to college but fail to enroll anywhere in the fall, can be a concern. Researchers have estimated the rate of summer melt at between 10 and 40 percent, although the number is likely on the lower end for the types of colleges with May 1 deposit deadlines. This is a factor that colleges may be able to mitigate with good outreach programs and summer interventions.

So pardon my lack of excitement for National Decision Day, as it doesn’t really affect that many students. If the goal is to encourage students whose success in college is far from guaranteed, let’s focus on getting students to apply after May 1 and then show up in the fall.

Spring Admissions: Expanding Access or Skirting Accountability?

More than one in five first-year students at the University of Maryland now start their studies in the spring instead of the fall, according to this recent article by Nick Anderson in the Washington Post. This seems to be an unusually high percentage among colleges and universities, but the plan makes a lot of sense. Even at selective institutions, some students will leave at the end of the first semester, and more space opens up on campus after other students graduate, study abroad, or take on internships. It can be a way to maximize revenue by better utilizing facilities throughout the academic year.

However, the article also notes that the SAT scores of spring admits are lower at Maryland. Among students starting in spring 2015, the median score was roughly a 1210 (out of 1500), compared to about 1300 for the most recent available data for fall admits in 2012. These students’ test scores suggest that spring admits are well-qualified to succeed in college, even if they didn’t quite make the cut the first time around. (It’s much less realistic to expect high-SAT students to defer, given the other attractive options they likely have.) This suggests Maryland’s program may have a strong access component.

However, deferring admission to lower-SAT students could be done for other reasons. Currently, colleges only have to report their graduation rates for first-time, full-time students who enrolled in the fall semester to the federal government. (That’s one of the many flaws of the creaky Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, and one that I would love to see fixed.) If these spring admits do graduate at lower rates, the public will never know. Additionally, many college rankings systems give colleges credit for being more selective. With the intense pressure to rise in the U.S. News rankings, even a small increase in SAT scores can be very important to colleges.

So is Maryland expanding access or trying to skirt accountability systems for a number of students? I would probably say it’s more of the former, but don’t discount the pressure to look good to the federal government and external rankings bodies. This practice is something to watch going forward, even though better federal data systems would reduce its effectiveness of shaping a first-year class.

Should College Admissions be Randomized?

Sixty-nine percent of students who apply to Stanford University with perfect SAT scores are rejected. Let that sink in for a minute…getting a perfect SAT is far from easy. In 2013, the College Board reported that only 494 students out of over 1.6 million test-takers got a 2400. Stanford enrolled roughly 1700 students in their first-year class in 2012, so not everyone had a perfect SAT score. Indeed, the 25th percentile of SAT scores is 2080, with a 75th percentile of 2350, for the fall 2012 incoming class according to federal IPEDS data. But all of those scores are pretty darned high.

It is abundantly clear that elite institutions like Stanford can pick and choose from students with impeccable academic qualifications. The piece from the Stanford alumni magazine that noted the 69% rejection rate for perfect SAT scorers also noted the difficulty of shaping a freshman class from the embarrassment of riches. All students Stanford considers are likely to graduate from that institution—or any other college.

Given that admissions seem to be somewhat random anyway, some have suggested that elite colleges actually randomize their admissions processes by having students be selected at random conditional on meeting certain criteria. While the current approach provides certain benefits to colleges (most notably allowing colleges to shape certain types of diversity and guaranteeing spots to children of wealthy alumni), randomizing admissions can drastically cut down on the cost of running an admissions office and also reduces the ability of students and their families to complain about the outcome. (“Sorry, folks…you called heads and it came up tails.”)

As a researcher, I would love to see a college commit to randomizing most of all of its admissions process over a period of several years. The outcomes of these randomly accepted students should be compared to both the students who were qualified but randomly rejected and to the outcomes of the previous classes of students. My sense would be that the randomly accepted students would be roughly as successful as those students who were admitted under regular procedures in prior years.

Would any colleges like to volunteer a few incoming classes?